Cats Cradle: Concentration
by Archangel the lord of death
Summary: Zatanna demonstrates the art of concentration to Harry. One shot for my Cats Cradle Series.


Concentration

A Cats Cradle fanfiction

Summary: Learning a new ability takes time, effort and hard work. One Shot

Notice: Cat's Cradle, I removed it a while ago due to gaping plot holes and is currently under rewrite, for those of you who didn't see it when it was up, Harry was rescued as a child by Selina when he was abandoned in Gotham City after a business deal went wrong.

Discovering his magical talent, the moment he hits 18, having been missed by Hogwarts admission letters he begins to travel to find someone to help him harness it.

A short story, but one that was fun to write none the less. Have fun and I hope you enjoyed.

I plan to do several of these as they come to mind.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, he belongs to JK Rowling, as does everything else that is recognisable from that series. Zatanna and everything recognisable from the DC Comics world belongs to DC Comics. I am not making any money from this and am writing this for fun.

'_Find my centre…I can do that, hell that's easy enough.'_ Harry thought as he sat cross-legged in the middle of a library.

It had been several long months of travelling to find anyone who could help him understand his abilities. Through several of the connections that he had through Catwoman, he had contacted several of the Magic Users in the Justice League and even some of the bad guys that owed Selina a favour. None of them would help, he was only able to escape near death from the Criminals because they owed Selina a favour. He still wasn't able to leave without a few bruises though. But it was worth it if it all paid off at the end.

Eventually though with no one agreeing to help him, Harry had lost all hope and returned to Gotham without telling anyone and was living by himself for a couple of weeks just to try and shake the depression that he felt himself falling into over the situation until fate decided to slap him in the face.

Quite literally with a poster hitting him in the face one morning advertising a magic show run by Zatanna, the woman who was credited as one of the strongest magic users ever. Harry had completely forgotten about her and he wondered why Selina hadn't told him about her yet couldn't think of a reason as to why.

The show itself had been captivating yes she knew how to use her magic and use it well but she didn't shy away from using some of the old magic tricks for just as stunning results. After the show, knowing he didn't have permission to go backstage, he went anyway to try and catch up with her. Being rusty from not sneaking around as much as he did he wasn't at all surprised when he found him self held to the wall by an invisible force

"Who are you?" She questioned a look of calm concentration on her face, her left hand glowing as she held it up. Harry realising she was focusing the magic with the gesture while talking didn't attempt to fight it so as not to anger her before he even said hello. Harry introduced himself and told his story to her. After several minutes of the retelling of the story Harry felt himself drop from the wall and landed gracefully on the floor. Dusting himself off he looked at her and took the thoughtful look on her face to be that she would at least consider the idea before turning him away. "So, can you help me?" Harry finally asked and she looked pensive.

"It would take a lot of time. A lot of patience and a lot of Hard Work." She emphasised the words hard work almost as if she was trying to scare Harry away with it. He stared back with a steely resolve.

"I don't plan on giving up any time soon, I have this ability I need to be able to control it and I don't want to run the risk of injuring my friends!" Harry had snapped in a little bit of frustration. "I have spent months looking for answers and everywhere I went I was turned away, ignored or just shunted on to someone else who then ignored me, not to mention the handful that also beat the everloving hell out of me and that's cause they were feeling generous because of the debt they owed my mother. You are my last chance."

She nodded and gestured for him to come a bit closer to her to make the next spell. "Emoh Su Ekat." She said and with a small Pop they were gone.

'_That was two months ago.'_ Harry idly mused and then mentally kicked himself as he realised he got side tracked. She was going to kill him if she realised.

The house itself was amazing, huge, trademark Gothic style and filled with more magical trinkets and Treasures than Harry even realised existed. Add to the fact the magical creation of Zatanna's House staff who had a habit of popping up at the most random times, Harry was a little bit paranoid of the house… much to Zatanna's amusement.

A small tap on his head caused his eyes to shoot open and Harry suddenly had a sinking feeling as he dropped to the floor. He ignored the painful landing and blinked at Zatanna in shock. "Was I just floating?" Harry asked.

"The term is levitating." She said in amusement. "And yes you were. Of course if you were focused you wouldn't have fallen then." She said in slight disappointment although her eyes shone with amusement.

"Well being hit round the head really doesn't help with the concentration." Harry muttered in annoyance as she sat down across from him. "In fact its extremely distracting, annoying and disturbing." He said and he watched her smile even more. "And the fact that you take enjoyment from that does make me wonder what kind of things you like when your otherwise occupied." He taunted cheekily and she blushed slightly before moving him back with a gesture and she sat down crossing her legs. She took her hat off and threw it to the side, a coat stand appearing and it landing on top as she looked at him and smiled.

"You just need to learn to channel your senses to alert you of things as you concentrate allowing you to filter through disturbances." She took a deep breath, her chest lifting and falling as she calmed herself down and Harry watched her almost in a trance himself… of course that was for a slightly different reason. Hey, he was male and warm blooded and she was freaking gorgeous. "Try and distract me," she said, closing her eyes as her body slowly lifted off of the ground levitating to the exact same height that Harry had been.

Now Harry was stubborn, he didn't back down and he didn't quit. He tried several things, he tried the same tactic of a tap to the back of the head, whispering right next to her ear, blowing a breath of air onto her other ear. Shouting and yelling was another tactic he tried hell after several minutes of standing there thinking of ways to distract her he even gave her a kiss on her forehead and she didn't even twitch. Eventually he ran out of ideas, all except for one.

Stepping out of the room he called for the butler who appeared with a small pop and he was already holding the item that Harry needed. "Thank you, I still don't get how you know what I want before I even ask but thank you." Harry thanked and took the item as the Butler left with a smile and Harry walked back in the library. "If this doesn't distract you, nothing will." Harry muttered as he walked over to her and reached over her head with the item.

The item was a bucket filled with ice cold water. He poured it over her and although he expected her to react to the water pouring over he, she didn't. she sat there completely at peace with the world not reacting as her clothes were drenched clinging to her body. Harry sat there for a moment thinking in annoyance at other ways to get her attention.

"OK! That's it! I quit." Harry finally surrendered as she opened her eyes and lowered herself down to the ground and then stood up and turned to face him and shivered slightly.

"Cold water?" She asked with a slightly cold stutter as she rubbed her arms to try and warm herself up. "That was a bit low." She protested weakly.

"You said distract you." Harry said and then realised the effect of his pouring cold water over her when she wears a mainly white costume… and just how cold the water is. "And I feel exhausted and am going to go for a lie down, I'll see you tomorrow for the next part of the training." Harry said very fast and Zatanna almost missed it as he quickly exited the room.

She looked down at herself and blushed slightly as she dried her clothes. But she couldn't blame his quick departure… hell he probably went for a cold shower. She summoned her hat back and with a wave of her hand and a tiny bit of magic the water mark on the carpet disappeared. She paused and shivered again still feeling the cold. "He is definently unique." The Butler said as he appeared next to Zatanna.

"there is a strong block on his magic, I don't know who put it there or how." She said thoughtfully a book appearing in her hand. I will have to try to remove it or he won't progress very far." She said and the Butler nodded leaving her drink on the nearby table before disappearing.

THE END

Well there is the end of the Concentration story. Not much has changed because the original worked well it just lacked detail so I added bits to it and made it a bit more fun

This is set in the gap in Cats Cradle 1 when Harry goes off to learn about his magic. It is also a part of the section that hints about his relationship with Zatanna. Harry has literally just hit 18 at this time period. And this is just one of the short stories of his time that he spent travelling I will include others were he meets other Super Heroes and Super Villains depending on how it all fits in.

I do have one planned that revolves around Harry and Black Canary with her teaching him about different fighting styles.

I have a Nightwing and Harry one planned where Nightwing and Harry are on patrol and Nightwing learns about Harry's past.

And I have many more.


End file.
